The German settlement of New Braunfels which includes the Gruene historic district is a resort along the Guadalupe River northeast of San Antonio, Texas that seems to be on the must visit list and we combined ours with meeting our friend Chris driving down from Austin, Texas a little further northeast.
In addition to the normal resort stuff the Guadalupe River which is a major Texas tube floating destination flows through the town. For those not familiar with "tubing" it is a float trip down the river partially submerged in a large inner tube to stay cool preferably with copious quantities of beer. Many weekends in the summer river access is restricted or you could walk across just stepping from tube to tube. The river is also subject to flash floods and I'll have details on the overflow of the Canyon Dam a few miles upstream when I finally get to 2016.
This large mural commorates Ferdinand Jakob Lindheimer as the Father of "Texas Botany". I'm not sure if I am getting better or just more experience with the Hugin Panorama but this huge mural was stitched from two photographs angled to look almost like pie slices. The result does have a slight hump in the middle of the wall but otherwise rather nice if I do say so myself.
This relatively smaller mural commemorates the city roots as a German colony and was substantially easier to adjust. We normally think of palm trees and coconuts but this is a date palm with a good crop developing. The city also has a lot of little alleys and courtyards like this one with the cherub fountain.